1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication terminal apparatus provided with a function for sending and receiving electronic mail, which can be connected to a data communication network, such as the internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
When sending electronic mail using a data communication network such as the internet, the electronic mail can be sent to the intended recipients by specifying mail addresses that are assigned individually to individual persons. Personal computers are commonly used as a means for sending electronic mail, but in recent years, for example mobile phones and facsimile apparatuses are also capable of sending and receiving electronic mail, and their numbers are rising. To send electronic mail with a mobile phone, the e-mail message and the mail address of the recipient are entered with the dial buttons for the input of telephone numbers. With facsimile apparatuses, the e-mail message and the mail address of the recipient are entered with the dial buttons, as with a mobile phone. With facsimile apparatuses, it is also possible to send document images that have been scanned in with a document scanning section to facsimile apparatuses or personal computers on the receiving side. Such a facsimile apparatus for sending and receiving electronic mail is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 11-55450 (1999)
FIG. 11 shows an input section 1 and a display section 2 of a conventional communication terminal apparatus. FIGS. 12A to 12E illustrate a conventional method for entering an e-mail address. In a conventional communication terminal apparatus, such as a mobile phone or a facsimile apparatus, the dial buttons shown in FIG. 11, which are limited in their number, have to be used to enter the body of the e-mail message and the e-mail address. For example, in addition to the number “2”, the input button 3 for entering the number “2” is associated with the alphabetic characters “A, B, C” and the Japanese syllabic characters (so-called “hiragana”) “ka, ki, ku, ke, ko”. In order to call up one of those characters, the input button 3 is pressed consecutively until the desired character appears in the display section 2.
Referring to FIGS. 12A to 12E, the following is an explanation of a method for inputting alphabetic characters. As shown in FIG. 12A, a cursor 5 is placed underneath the character “a”, and the position of the cursor 5 indicates that this character is in the input state. If the desired character is “b”, the character above the cursor 5 can be changed from “a” to “b”, as shown in FIG. 12B, by pressing the input button 3 one more time. To confirm this character and enter the next character, the character is confirmed by pressing another input button, and the cursor 5 moves to the next position, assuming a state of standby for the next character input. However, for e-mail addresses, the symbols “@” (at sign) and “.” (dot) are used, as shown in FIGS. 12C to 12E, and to enter those, it is necessary to push the input button 4 to select and call them up, which makes the task tedious.
FIG. 13 illustrates the configuration of an e-mail address, FIG. 14 illustrates several kinds of e-mail addresses, and FIG. 15 illustrates an e-mail address containing an input mistake. As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, e-mail addresses are configured according to certain predetermined rules, and are made up of an account name (user name) specifying the user, then on the right-hand side, separated by the symbol “@”, a second-level domain name indicating a company or organization, and finally, separated by the symbol “.” (dot) the top-level domain name, indicating organization code and country code.
E-mail addresses are usually specified by alphanumeric characters, and as it is difficult to distinguish for example between the symbols “.” (dot) and “,” (comma) on the display, it happens easily that an e-mail address is entered with a typographical error, as shown in FIG. 15. Furthermore, in mobile phones, the display screen is small and the liquid crystal dots are coarse, so that it is difficult to distinguish certain characters and to judge whether the characters have been entered correctly.
Furthermore, in the conventional technology disclosed in JP-A 11-55450, all e-mail addresses are stored in a storage section, and to send out an e-mail, the desired e-mail address is selected from the e-mail addresses stored in that storage section. However, in this conventional technology, there is the problem that, as the number of stored e-mail addresses increases, it becomes increasingly troublesome to search the desired e-mail address from a plurality of e-mail addresses.